There’s a storm coming. If you live on the east coast and you did not see the weather report (for whatever reason THAT would happen, I have no idea), you would know a storm was coming because you cannot find bread or milk on any grocery shelves. That’s what people ‘do here’ when a storm comes. They buy bread and they buy milk……oh yes, they buy shovels……..lots of shovels.
Honestly you would think no one owns a shovel in the northeast because every time a storm comes, stores place hundreds of shovels at the front of the store and THEY ALL SELL. People, What do you do with your old shovels?!?!?!?!
There are many places where you can read how to prepare for a storm when it comes to diabetes supplies and food. I’m not gong to speak about that today, but I am going to talk to you about diabetes storms. On our news of late, they have been talking about this snow storm for days here on Long Island (I can hardly wait until we complete our move to South Carolina). We all know it’s on the way. We can prepare. If we are not ready, it’s our own fault.
Diabetes storms can not usually, nor so easily, be predicted. What is a diabetes storm? Well like the weather, there are different types of diabetes storms in my mind. There is the ‘cannot find a constant blood glucose number’ storm; the device malfunction storm; the cannot get the glucose number below 240 storm, there is the cannot get the glucose number above 50 storm, there is the no-matter-what-I-do-my-child-bottoms-out-during-the-night storm and more.
There is also ‘the perfect storm’, that is, where multiple things happen at once like a device breaks as the stomach flu arrives type-thing; clearly we have our share of storms to deal with and many times there is no Diabetes Weather-person out there to warn us what is coming toward us over the next few days.
But the storms come, don’t they.
And in most cases they also go, usually, don’t they?
I think the best way to brace yourself for a storm is just to recognize what you are dealing with, recognize what exactly is going on around you. And as soon as you realize the situation, ask a lot of questions because many people have been through these storms many times. Don’t be in a diabetes storm in a little rowboat on your own; when people are waiting out there and have navigated ocean liners of choices through typhoons of diabetes storms.
Your ‘radar’ warning is the online community in many of these instances. Surely you need your medical team of advice and guidance but there is not a parent out there who has not been through what you are about to undertake. Ask. Seek information. Call your doctor with what you find out. Chart a course.
Being ready for these instances are just as important as making sure there is enough juice for a low and enough insulin in the refrigerator during a snow storm. No one likes a storm. But just as there are weather people to predict the storm coming, there are parents and ‘people with diabetes to help guide you. The major difference is that we probably have a better record of predicting what to expect in a diabetes storm, than television News Weather Reporters have in guessing how many inches of snow will fall.
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